A single detail different
by The gangsta of love
Summary: His highness prince Haru Glory of Symphonia may be loosing his mind. He keeps claiming that he is the second Rave master and that the entire country was wiped out by something called overdrive 50 years ago. NEWS
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own rave master.**

**Well ladies, gentlemen, and readers of all ages, I'm back after quite a hiatus. I've been wrapped up in other projects recently, but this was an idea that would not leave my head. Please read, review and I'll see you at the bottom.**

It was out of seasonally warm on that particular day of April, but that was perfectly fine for her majesty. She truly enjoyed days like these. It felt very nostalgic of her hometown where it was sunny like this on most days of the year, and so she was able to plan a lunch outside on the gazebo of her favorite palace garden. The one that overlooked the labyrinth of rose bushes that stretched out over quite a few acres, and even the flowers were early to bloom as a result of the nice weather.

All in all she should have been enjoying this day much more than she truly was but there was quite a bit of difficulty in that given the current predicament her people were in and not even this pleasant tea time could allow her to forget it.

"More tea, your ladyship?" Offered one of her many maids.

"No thank you." She politely refused. Letting out a sigh, she allowed her eyes to wander over to the dozen maidens and bodyguards that surrounded the terrace. It was strange how lonely one could feel even when surrounded by this many people.

When she first came to live as a queen, she felt very unsettled by constantly have so many people around her. She was once just a humble average island girl who went for a walk one day and found a young man washed up upon the shore. How was she to know that he was the heir to the Symphonian kingdom who had been missing for days after falling off his ship, from that moment on her life was forever changed. After so many years, she had grown quite used to both the perks and annoyances of falling in love, marrying and taking on a role of royalty, and they eventually faded into the background.

She couldn't help but feel lonely when her lunch date with her husband fell through. The man had become so busy over the past few months that it seemed too difficult to even plan a lunch with him in the privacy of their own abode.

It was just a part of the package deal she supposed, though that didn't prevent her from getting so vexed at the matter all the same. What a nuisance this new Raregroovian king had become and that was putting it lightly. Raregroove and Symphonia had been warring off and on for the past 50 years or so, but there was something about this newest development in particular that caused a very foreboding sense of dread, that this was to lead into very dangerous territory.

For the past few years the quarrel with the Raregrooves was put on ice. They were still on very bad terms and any little thing could set off the fighting again, so this new war didn't come as such an enormous shock to anyone, but it was all so sudden. What started it was somewhat an enigma. The previous Rargroovian king had died quite suddenly and his heir took over and settled himself on the thrown almost with the same week, and now without so much as a warning, he wants to see their nation of Symphonia burned to the ground. If only they knew more about this dangerous new threat, but there is so little intelligence they have on him, only that he was the only prince and heir to the Raregroovian thrown, he was recently wed, he is quite the ambitious, and veracious lad and that he was no older than her youngest. That was the most unsettling thing of all about this young man. She couldn't imagine her son being married, running the country, and least of all trying to take up the war effort. What a terrible thought. He was practically still her baby in her mind.

"Queen Sakura."

Her majesty blinked, the sudden new voice shocking her out of her muses. She had been so lost in thought she had not noticed the servant coming at all.

"Yes? What is it?"

"I regret to inform you that his highness prince Haru, has been in a sort of an accident as of recently." Said the man, as he stood strait and tall delivering the unfortunate news to his queen.

Her eyes widened at the news. "What happened?" Her voice rising to a worried octave.

"His highness has hit his head upon falling off his horse. He lost consciousness from the impact."

"Has a doctor been called?" She stood up from her chair.

"Yes milady. There is one checking him over in the prince's bed chambers as we speak."

"Thank you. You are dismissed. I will go to him now." The servant stepped aside to allow the queen her passage. She stepped lively as her maidens followed suit.

* * *

Haru Glory's eyes shot open and he gasped as though letting out a breath that he didn't know he was holding for a few minutes. His mind was blank from overload, like a computer that had tried to do too much at once and needed to be restarted. It took him a moment or so for things to catch up to him and notice where he was. He had just finished fighting a to the death fight with Lucia, being trapped in the Endless, having to convince the one he loved to blow him up to save everybody, just before finding out he true feelings for him as well, all with in the past 60 seconds, and now here he lay staring at the ceiling of an enormous, pristine bedroom fit for a king, feeling completely fine, albeit, stressed out and a bit of a head ache.

Yes, for certain, it took him a moment to realize something screwy was going on.

He sat up, probably too quickly. It did very little to help his headache. He took a long look around the room. He sat on a lavish king sized bed with Egyptian cotton sheets and a gold canopy above him. The room was larger than the average person's entire apartment. The ceiling had paintings of angels covering it like a mural and the massive ornately decorated windows on the left of him with the velvet curtains streamed in sunlight.

Where in the world was he?

'_Knock, knock!'_

He turned to his right at the sound of knocking at the door. Who could that be? Hopefully someone with answers.

"Haru." He heard from the other side of the large wooden barricade. It was a voice he was certain he had heard before. A woman that he knew but he just could not place his finger on who it was.

"I'm coming in, son." She said when she received no answer.

The door opened to reveal the one person that Haru never in a thousand years would have foreseen coming. For this woman was none other than Mrs. Sakura Glory, Haru's mother, deceased for many years.

The Rave master held his breath and his eyes bulged. He could not make a single sound. He dared not even blink. There she was, Not exactly as he remembered but it was unmistakably her face.

She had aged about ten years from the look on her older eyes, with a hint of crow's feet at the corners. Her hair looked to be on the verge of turning grey but not yet. It still had a few more years. It was shorter than he remembered. Gracing just above her shoulders, but just as thick and strait as a whip as he knew it to be. She had aged nicely. Her figure was still thin and she still was so beautiful for a woman in her mid forties. She adored an expensive, red, professional looking, buttoned down, summer dress that cut of just above the knees with matching gloves, high heels and hat to keep the sun off of her face. Her features were covered in subtle make up. She looked like the first lady of a nation.

After a moment of simply staring, he rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. There was no way what he was seeing could possibly be real.

"Are you all right dear? I came just as soon as heard you had an accident." She spoke in the soft voice that brought back so many of Haru's memories as she walked over to the bed he lay on and took up a seat on it next to him.

"M-mom?" It was that he could manage to say. He was lucky he could even breath after this shocking turn of events was being thrown into his face after all that he had already been though in just the past few minutes.

"I just spoke with the doctor. He said that you were lucky to only step away from such an accident with just a minor bump. You could have gotten a concussion, or worse." She said happy that her son was looking well.

"… Ah…A-am I … dead?"

It was the only explanation that he could come up with at the time. I mean Elie did fire Etherion at him with enough force to melt a solar system. Why else would he be in a place like this, talking with dead people?

"Of coarse not, silly." Sakura chuckled at his preposterous idea. "You simply fell off your horse and hit your head just hard enough to knock you out and give me a scare, but the doctor tells me you'll be absolutely fine. So there's nothing to worry… about…?"

One could see clearly from outer space just how odd her son was acting it was so obvious. He looked as though he was looking at a ghost. He slowly and nervously reached his hand up to touch her face. She could feel his fingertips shaking as they skimmed across her cheek. It was almost making her uncomfortable at how disturbed he looked.

"You're real?" He said at a level more quiet than a whisper.

"Perhaps I should call the doctor back – OH"

The queen was absolutely thrown off guard by her son just throwing her arms around her in a massive hug that almost caused her to fall back. The boy sniffled as he buried his head into her shoulder, not slaking on his tight grip at all as though he was too afraid she was going to leave for good.

"_Sniffle_, mom…"

"Sweetheart what is the matter?" She was truly at a loss for why her near 18-year-old boy was now clinging to her as though he hadn't seen her in years. After a few minutes of absolutely nothing but him just clinging tightly to her and crying, she eventually had to break the silence.

"Now dear." She said pushing him back slightly. She looked into his puffy red eyes and wiped away the remaining stray tears. "That's enough of this. I don't know what you're making such a fuss about, but I think that maybe you should just rest for a while until you're less upset and then you can come to talk to me. The last thing any of us need is to cause ourselves any extra stress right now."

She stood up, smoothed the wrinkles out of her clothes and walked out the door to greet her maidens who were waiting patiently for her this entire time. Just as she gently shut the door behind her and left, Haru went into a panic and shot up, getting the sudden sense of dread that this could once again be the final time he ever saw her.

"MOM!"

"What is it?"

She swung the door open again so suddenly at the sound of her son calling out to her. From the sound of his yell he sounded as though he was terrified but there he sat just as she had left him but a second ago. They stared at each other for a moment in silence. Sakura waiting for him to say anything, clearly it was important.

Haru just stared back completely at a loss. She was real. She came right back. This wasn't like last time. His mother was here and she was alive.

"Uh… " There was nothing to say. "…. Never mind…."

With that she took her leave once more, confused and slightly annoyed by her son's erratic behavior.

Haru just sat in stunned silence for a minute longer before he got out of bed and went to one of the rather large windows. This place was so unfamiliar to him and for good reason too. It was no less than ten minutes ago that he was trapped inside a world destroying entity, fighting for his life, and getting blown up by the woman that he loved just after defeating his greatest adversary, and now he was just here. Where ever this place was. Outside his window he could see that he was over five stories up and was over looking the most beautiful view of a lush, green palace courtyard.

He looked down. These were most certainly not the clothes he was wearing before. He was adorned in red pajamas made of what he could only guess was pure silk, or satin, how was he suppose to know the exact names of fabric. There wasn't a scratch on him for someone who just walked away from such an intense battle, in fact when he took a closer inspection there were scars from previous battles that were completely gone. The only mark of any injury at all was the bandage on his head from the supposed horse riding accident that his mother had told him about. When did he ever hide a real horse?

Was he in a palace? It certainly looked like one. How did he get here? Where is here? Where was everybody else, all his friends, Elie? How did his mother get here? What was going on? This was not helping his headache at all.

**Now here's when I hit the bad news. This won't be like other fics I wrote in the past where I can't dedicate a lot of time to it. I'm still in school and there is a part of me that feels a little guilty for writing this when I should be writing a paper for one of my classes, not to mention those other projects I've been working on, I don't want to put those down either. I don't know when I'll be able to update next, so nobody hold his or her breath.**

**That's another thing I want to talk about. Normally when I write a story I've got two out of three parts figured out, the beginning, middle, or end. Sometimes I know where I want a story to go but I don't know how to start it, sometimes I know how to start a story and I know how I want end but I've yet to work out the details of how to get there. Well in this case I know where I'm going from the beginning and middle but I don't know where it will end up later on. I feel a little bit irresponsible and unfair to my readers because of these facts, but I assure you, I'll try to give you as good an experience as I can for as long as I can.**

**With that said and done. It's good to be home again.**

**Love ya. Peace!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not Own Rave Master.**

The young Princess walked so swiftly down the corridors of the palace that her escorts almost had trouble keeping up with her. She wasn't running or even jogging, but she was on the verge of a jog. She knew it would be improper for her to do so, and there was no reason to run. She was already told her younger brother was just fine, but she wanted very badly to see for herself. She couldn't help but rush a little in her anxiousness. It wasn't everyday that a boy so strong as prince Haru got into an accident like this. But on the other hand it would look embarrassing if she made such a fuss over him when he was most likely perfectly fine, as she had been notified. Also these weren't the best shoes to run in. There were faults with only having the highest fashion to wear all the time and this was one of them.

When she finally made it to her brother's bedchamber door, she excused her escorts and let herself in. She probably should have knocked first. She knew better than to just barge in, but if she hadn't she would have probably missed the interesting sight in front of her.

Haru looked completely ridiculous as he stood there in the center of the room pinching his face hard enough to make a most comedic expression.

"CAH-DAY-HYAH!" He yelled out at the sight of his older sister. His pronunciation of her name was way off thanks to the funny way he contorted his face by pinching it.

She stifled a laugh, all worry forgotten. "Haru, what are you doing?"

He let go of his cheeks. "So this isn't a dream after all." And now Cat was here., furthering the strangeness. He wasn't dead, he wasn't dreaming. What was all of this?

"No, this is in fact reality, the last time I checked anyway. But if you want I can pinch your face too." She spoke walking towards him. "How are you feeling? I heard you had an accident and hurt you head this morning."

"Honestly, I'm a little confused." He said rubbing his sore red face. Maybe his sister had answers for him. "The last thing I remember is my fight with Lucia for the world and then talking with Elie. What's happened since then?" He could only assume more time had passed since then than he could remember. Hopefully while he was being brought to this place, whatever it was, someone had filled her in.

"Lucia? Elie? I don't know who these people are. What were you and your friends fighting about?"

Well he hoping that someone would have explained this her, but he was still unsure of how much time had past since those events. A few days? Weeks?

"Lucia was the Dark Bring Master. I defeated him while we were stuck in Endless. Elie is…" a deep blush appeared on his cheeks. He wasn't used to saying it out loud, especially not to his sister who he knew would worry about him and girls. "My girl."

To his surprise it wasn't the part about him with a girl that she first reacted to like he thought she would. In fact her reaction wasn't one he had foreseen at all.

"Dark Bring?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Haru, Dark Bring have been long gone since the first Symphonian, Raregroove, war. What are you talking about?"

"Huh?" There's no way she could have forgotten about Dark Bring. "What am I talking about? What are you talking about? Wait!" Then the other part of her sentence hit him. "What do you mean FIRST war?"

"Haru. No one has seen those magic stones since the Rave Master destroyed them and stopped the over drive 50 years ago. There are none left."

Haru would have chuckled at her ridiculousness if he weren't so sure she wasn't joking. "Uh no. You have one little detail of that history lesson wrong. Shiba didn't stop the overdrive."

"If he didn't stop the overdrive than how is it that both countries are still standing?" Her brother's logic was starting to sound stupid to her. "He won us the war 50 years ago and saved us all. Everyone who has ever glanced at a history book knows this."

Haru could only star at her with his mouth agape. "How is that possible?"

"Because he was the Rave Master! Honestly Haru it's what you're saying that makes no sense! I'm going to find that doctor to look you over once more. Clearly he missed something. That bump on the head must have rattled your brain."

"No sis!" He grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving. "Don't you see this isn't right? It's not supposed to be this way! Shiba was supposed to fail at destroying all the dark bring, and both nations were wiped out! Our grandfather escaped and started a normal family out side the country! Then I took up the position of Rave master and… and….." He trailed off when the apparent look of disbelief on her face grew too much.

He let her go, not knowing what to think. It was all too much. How did this happen? Why was he here? On one hand history was rewritten with a much happier ending. A travesty was erased, but on the other…. His shoulder's slumped. He was at a loss for words. What about the life he had?

"Haru what is going on in that head of yours?" Princess Cattleya had never seen her brother like this.

"What happened to my friends? Musica, let, Julia…oh Elie…" Elie in particular hit him hard. What happened to her?

The princess just stared at her brother for a moment, completely at a loss for what to say. He looked so defeated, and she didn't even understand why. Maybe it was just a dream, or maybe he was seriously going crazy. But it was real to him and she couldn't stand to see him this way.

"Ahem. Well." She had to think of something. "I don't know who most of those people are, but the name Musica sounds familiar."

"Really?" Haru's head immediately shot up at the sound of such good news.

"Isn't he the head of our army's weapon's development department?" She wasn't entirely certain. She didn't know the names of everybody who ran departments like that, but she was fairly sure that she had heard that name being thrown around before.

"Where can I find him?" Haru practically yelled out. If there were a chance he could find his friends, he would take it. He had to know, were they all right? Did they remember anything, or were they just like his sister and his mom? He needed answers.

"He'd be overseeing the weapon blacksmithing factory, across the city!" She practically jumped at her brother's sudden, unexpected mood swing.

"All right! Thanks! See you latter, sis! Bye!" Without another word he ran right past her and out the door, leaving her alone and confused in his room.

* * *

As beautiful as this palace was, it was enormous and poor Haru had ended up wasting a lot of time just trying to navigate through it. Hallway after hallway, room after room, where was the exit to this place?

As he swiftly strolled down each corridor, looking for a way out he began to notice that his were not the only footsteps that could be heard on the polished marble floors. He looked back and saw six men, all dressed in the same royal guard uniforms, walking ten steps behind him. They had been there ever since he left his room. At first he was sure that it was just coincidence and that they just happened to be going in the same direction as him. He had passed some people in the midst's of his jog down the hall but paid them no mind. A few maids, some more guards, some people who he could only guess were guests of the palace, they were dressed awfully nice, but it didn't matter much to him. This place was huge; it would have been weird to have it completely void of human life besides his family, however after the fifth corner they turned along with him, and the fact that they seemed to try to keep up with his pace he began to get suspicious that they were following him.

When he stopped dead in his tracks and they did as well, he knew it for certain.

"Can I help you?" He asked them. Their constant shadowing was beginning to get annoying.

"No sir." One commented.

Haru began to start his wanderings again and so were they. Okay now they were getting really annoying. If there was nothing they wanted why were they following him? He had to call them out on it.

"Why are you following me?"

If their prince's out of the norm behavior at all surprised the guards, they did their best to hide it out of respect. Although it was secretly odd to them, Prince Haru had an entourage to take him everywhere all his life. Yes there were more of them than usual because of the new Rareroovian war developments, but he should understand that.

Another guard answered him this time. "As his highness's royal bodyguards we are to keep an eye out for danger at all times and act as an escort."

"What?" That was both ridiculous, and stupid to Haru. He didn't need a babysitter, let alone six that probably couldn't do half as good a job in defending him than he could do on his own. "Even when I'm just walking around my family's place?"

"Yes, sir." Prince Haru's unabashed speech was also far different than usual in their mind. He spoke more like a commoner than a prince. They had been serving the family for years and they had yet to see him act this way. Still they would say nothing about it.

"Well thanks but no thanks. Take a break!"

"Sir, as an order of his majesty the king, we cannot do that. With new uncertainties about the dangers this new Raregroonian war, security must remain vigilant."

"GRR." Haru practically clenched his teeth at how obnoxious this situation was. So he was never allowed a moment to himself, unless he locked himself away in his room? How lame was that? He never asked to be royalty, and so far he couldn't say that he enjoyed it, and it had been less than 30 minutes!

With nothing left to say he just continued his search for an exit with his entourage following in close pursuit. He picked up the pace a little more, and of course so did they. Finally he just couldn't take it any more. He was determined to loose them. He broke into a run. They tried to keep up but luckily for Haru, he was much faster. Within a few minutes, he was sure he lost them.

He was out of breath when he had stopped running and no closer to the palace's exit. "Aw man." He said to himself between breaths. I gotta find a way to get everything back to normal!"

**Wow. My first chapter got a poor response. 0 reviews and barely any hits at all. Guess I'm not so good at drawing people in with my starter chapters. Hopefully this one was more entertaining to you guys. Let me know if you have any questions okay?**

**Peace out!**


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own rave master

Musica wiped the sweat off his brow. The next six months were going to suck he could just feel it. Being trapped in this boiling hot oven of a blacksmith factory basement, pounding on metal all day to make weapons that were most likely just going to be discarded on the battle field, broken, stolen, or plunged into people. (He really didn't want to think about that) This was not how he wanted to spend his summer. He loved his granddad, he really did and he would always be grateful for teaching him the family's craft, after all there were worse things to be doing in tough times like these, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

He'd much rather be home in Punk street, trying to get lucky with the corner chicks, but then this new Raregroovian king had to come about and make his intentions toward Symphonia known. It was said that another war would start soon and of course his granddad, being the loyal man that he was stepped up to help out with the effort against the Raregrooves. He was much too old to be leading the weapons making division for Symphonia again. He was there at the very first war fifty years ago for crying out loud, but he was too much of a nationalistic man to ignore the call. Musica wouldn't normally have felt so angry with that. The geezer could do what he wanted in fact he'd be proud of the old man for standing up for what he believed in, if it weren't for the fact that he just had to drag him along for the ride.

Yes old man Musica refused to allow his grandson to just "stay home and 'laze' about while the grater good was calling for them" as he liked to put it and so here young Musica would be for the next few months, just standing in a hot factory, molding pieces of metal five days a week from nine to five. Once again he would like to reiterate that this wasn't the worst job in the world. He could have been drafted to fight and then maybe one of these swords would have been plunged into him. (Not that he was afraid to fight) He just didn't feel like this suited him. He couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't where he was meant to be. That there was something else he should have been doing.

Oh well. He raised the hammer high above his head and slammed it down on to the hot metal once more, just doing his job.

The loud noise of his swinging hammer almost caused him to miss the sound of one of the factory workers running down the stairs into the basement to greet him. "Mr. Musica. Someone's here to see you" He said with a salute.

Musica couldn't care less about formalities amounts the other workers. He couldn't help but wonder if they treated him so politely because of his skill or because his was the boss's grandkid. To be honest now that his grandfather was out dealing with the paperwork side of their business today there was no one there to make him care either, so he didn't bother to salute back. Still he put down the hammer to regard the worker, if only because he had been swinging it for a few hours now and he wanted an excuse to take a few minute breathers.

"Oh yeah, who is it?"

"You're not gonna believe it," said the worker, excitement laced his voice. "But his highness, prince Haru Glory is up stairs right at this moment and he asked for you personally!"

The blacksmith just stared dully at the worker for a moment, wondering if there was a punch line to this joke. Royalty coming all the way over just to see him specifically? Yeah right.

"Okay sure, whatever, let his highness in. Don't keep him waiting." He said sarcastically. He turned back to his work and continued hammering the hot metal.

He tried to put more focus on his work and put his agitation behind him when all of a sudden he heard a joyful shriek and was suddenly tackled to the ground, causing his hammer to be flung across the room, barely missing a stack of finished swords, the entire morning's work.

"AAAAHHHHH! MUSICAAAA!" The assailant blubbered uncontrollably, practically clinging to him. "YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY I AM TO SEE YOU!"

It was no understatement. After finally ditching the palace guards, it took Haru another ten minutes of sneaking around the castle to find the exit but there were even more guards at stationed at the front door guarding it. There was no way they'd let him just waltz out. He had to sneak out a window, which unfortunately for him led him strait into the labyrinth of rose buses in the courtyard. It took another twenty minutes just to navigate through that. Technically he didn't so much navigate through it as get so fed up with it he forced his way through, getting pricked by what must have been a trillion rose thorns, by his estimation. After scaling one final 12-foot tall brick wall at the end of the maze or rather the side of it, he was able to get out of the palace's private property.

Then came a different problem. He was the prince, an easily recognizable figure amongst the people and he wasn't able to get two city blocks away before a mess of people swarmed him.

At first it was just a few nice people, some wanted an autograph or a photo with him, with he gave them that, no big deal, although it was a little embarrassing, then some more people came, mothers asking if he would kiss their babies and a few store and restaurant owners asking if he would come to their places, offering discounts, thinking that if a prince ate there it would help draw in more customers. Haru, being in a hurry and getting more than a little embarrassed by the treatment, politely refused and tried to walk away, but even more people just kept coming and getting more forceful. A few girls actually squealed over him, yelling out such things like, "we love you" and "make me a princess!" It really got out of control when the haters started swarming in demanding answers to their politically questions and acting like everything wrong with their lives were all the government's fault.

The worst was when some palace officials showed up hearing the commotion. They had been looking for the prince ever since he ditched his escort and they were determined to bring him back home. The gathering of people led them right to the prince, but luckily for Haru they also gave him cover. Amongst the chaos of all his 'fans' he snuck away by getting on all fours and crawling through their legs. He managed to get away from the crowd and slip around the corner where he took a moment to catch his breath. He had more than enough of being a celebrity for a lifetime. He just wanted to get to that factory that Musica worked at without being spotted any more.

He noticed a clothing store across the street with a rack of discounted men's clothes in front of it. Maybe if he were dressed more common like, people wouldn't recognize him so easily.

He didn't have any money with him but on the other hand no one was looking. He really hated to do this. His sister always told him not to take things that don't belong to him, but then again this was a different time line so who knew what she would say to this? He grabbed some clothes he would normally wear back in his normal time line, a pair of white pants, a black tee shirt and an old worn in leather jacket that was probably on sale because it was used. He hid in an empty back alley and changed quickly. The Prince made a mad dash out of there, certain that no one had seen him.

It worked for the most part. People didn't swarm him, but he did get the occasional long stare from passers by who gave him a familiar glance. He kept his head down, didn't make eye contact with anyone and walked fast. He was able to get directions to the factory from an old lady with bad eyes, but knew her way around the city.

And now here he was, after all that he was more determined than ever to get back to his regular time, so how could one possibly blame him for greeting his best friend the way he did after all that he went through to find him.

"OH MAN, BUDDY, FOR A WHILE I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO YOU! DO YOU KNOW WHERE EVERY ONE ELSE IS? ELIE, OR-"

BAMM! "GET OFFA ME!"

Musica kicked him right in the gut, pushing him away from him and into a wall. He did not care for this stranger's hysterics', especially after getting tackled from behind, This guy could have seriously hurt them both while he was working with piping hot metal and a giant hammer. What kind of idiot would-

That's when he stopped to get a good look at this Looney. Silver blond hair, violet eyes, around the age of 18, he had never seen the prince before in person, but he seen enough of him from TV, newspapers, and magazines to be able to recognize him now that he looked close enough. This was him alright. That worker was right; Prince of Symphonia, Haru Glory, was here right in front of him. OH SHIT! It just dawned on him. He assaulted an important political figure, and all he was doing was just staring like a slack jawed moron. Who cares why he was here or what the hell he was doing jumping on him like that, the young blacksmith was gonna be banished or executed for this!

Uh! Um! Please forgive my rudeness your Excellency!" Musica bowed, hoping to make up for his brashness. "I am honored to-"

"No! Not you too!" The prince interrupted. If Musica was talking to him like this than that could only mean one thing. He didn't remember anything either! Dammit! Haru knew it was a long shot. Was he the only one who remembered the way things were supposed to be?

Musica was snapped out of his terror at being arrested and put to death by Haru's insane musings. The prince looked a little nutty to him. He was clearly stressed and overly hyped up over something. The kid was ready to pull his hair out. Musica had never met the prince before but he had never imagined he'd be anything like this.

"Uh, beg your pardon?" The blacksmith asked confused.

"Musica! You need to listen to me! I need your help!" Haru nearly begged.

Wow. The prince was asking personally for him of all people to help him, whatever it was he would probably pay handsomely and be presently with so much honor and glory for services to the royal family, and it would get him out of this boring work. He didn't know what for but if the prince needed him for something and he wasn't in trouble for kicking royalty in the gut than this was shaping up to be a really good day.

"Whatever you need, your highness!" Musica replied excitedly, even giving him a salute out of respect, something he swore he wouldn't give anyone that day.

"You gotta help me find Elie and the others so we can get things back to normal!"

"Um, what?" The blacksmith sure wasn't expecting a request like that.

"Okay." Haru took a deep breath and prepared his explanation.

**Most of these chapters are pretty short. I'll try and make them longer as I go. Summer vacation is in three weeks, so I may have more time depending on the job I get this summer.**


	4. Chapter 4

I do not own Rave master.

"And so I just woke up and people started calling me a prince. My parents were alive, everything was different." Haru did his best to explain the situation to Musica. He didn't skimp on the details. He told him about their quest, their friends, all their journeys, everything he could recall up until the point where he woke up that morning. The entire while Musica never interrupted him. He just waited patiently for the boy to finish.

Musica had never met royalty before today. He knew people who knew them, and he had read up on them just as much so as everyone else did, but he himself had never had the honor of meeting any of them before today. Now that he had met one of them his idea of what they were like had changed drastically. The young blacksmith didn't think he would ever see them as high society, well mannered, classy political figures ever again. At least that's not how he would view this kid.

Haru saw his skeptical look and he already knew the answer to his question.

"You don't believe any of this do you?"

"I'm going to call the cops." Musica replied plainly.

He didn't want to tell the prince what he really thought of him because he was still the prince of the nation after all, but that wouldn't stop him from acting on it. The poor kid was obviously delusional, he didn't know how he found him, or knew so much about him, but Musica could not believe that he was supposed to be an orphan raised on the streets as a silver claimer and a gang leader before going on an amazing quest to save the world with all these weird people Haru described as friends.

"No Musica, please!" He was practically begging at this point. He needed somebody to believe him, somebody to not think he was nuts!

"You have to believe me. I'm not making this up. We're best friends, you made me my sword, Ravelt, and helped me defeat Demon Card. They're real, I mean they were real." He let out an aggravated sigh. This was starting to confuse him as well.

"What sword was that?" Musica asked. He had made hundreds of swords in the past but he would have definitely remembered if he had made one for the prince if it was as special as he claimed.

"I- I don't have it on me right now." One thing that really made Haru very uneasy was that both Rave and his sword were not with him when he awakened.

"Okay well, your highness I think you should just sit down and-"

"Would you stop calling me that! That's not me!" Haru snapped. He could not stand being treated like a prince anymore. He didn't like the celebrity status, he didn't like that he needed to be baby-sat by an entourage of body guards, he didn't like that his own friends spoke to him so strangely, he just didn't like it, period!

"It is you!" Musica yelled back! He tried to get through to him. This whole Rave adventure thing he concocted was all in his head and he would make sure this kid could see that.

"Look." Musica said as he walked over to a shelf with a bag on it that belong to one of the factory workers. She left it there last night, but Musica knew her well enough to know that she was fixated on magazines like these and that there would be some in there. He pulled out a few about the Symphonia and Raregroove royal family and what was going on now. He flipped through he pages until he landed on one involving the prince.

"This is you!" Musica yelled as he shoved the article in his face. He couldn't believe that he was telling someone else whom they were, but he was getting fed up.

Haru skimmed through the article. It was written like one of those celebrity pieces on actors and superstars. It went on about all of his favorites, his hobbies, what kind of girl he likes. Haru saw the photo of himself smiling back at him from the page but just couldn't believe that was him. Hobbies include, horseback riding? Clubbing? Polo? He didn't even know what that last one was! Was this the kind of person he would be if Symphonia survived? He just couldn't picture it.

Haru flipped the pages; he didn't want to look at that anymore, it was too weird to think about, and that was when he noticed something else, something even worse to think about.

"Elie?"

It was a new article, this time about the Raregroovian royal family. It was titled 'New Raregroovian queen' there was so much less information about her than his piece. In fact all it said was that this was the picture of the newly crowned queen of Raregoove. That this young woman, who had seemingly come out of no where was just recently wed to his majesty, King Lucia Raregroove, as of last month and this was the most recent and so far only photograph of her.

Haru's hands began to tremble and his heart skipped a few beats. He gazed horrified by her picture. She was lovely, no doubt about it, she always was to Haru, but there was something very wrong about how she looked to him. She wore a beautiful velvet red designer dress that showed off her curves, but did well to hide most her skin. She wore much more make up than she usually did and if one looked closely enough they could see why. There were bruises hidden underneath all that blush and God only knew what was under her clothes. It was probably why she was wearing long sleeves at this time of year, but it was her eyes that haunted Haru the most. She had a beautiful smile adorning her face but it was not her normal smile. It was the kind of smile one gives for a photographer when they say cheese. It wasn't genuine, and it didn't reach her sad, hauntingly empty eyes. These were the eyes of tragically hurt and scared woman.

He read the article title again and again in his mind but he just could not bring himself to believe it, 'Raregroovian queen?'

Moving. She had to keep moving, otherwise face the consequences of being caught. Her breath was labored from all of the running and her limbs were beginning to feel like they were made of rubber. She was much too tired to keep this pace up but she had no choice so long as she could plainly hear the men chasing her from not far behind. She had no doubt that they weren't tired at all. After all it was what they were hired for, tracking her down like she was a wild beast to be hunted every time she ran away like this.

Lady Raregroove refused to be taken back to him. This was her day. She would be free no matter what. She was already beyond the Raregroovian castle's property line and deep into the woods. She had never gotten this far before, although that also worked to her disadvantage. She didn't know her way around here and all the trees in her way that she constantly had to dodge were slowing her down, but she would not go back no matter what. She never wanted to see that husband of her's ever again!

Being royalty was nothing like how it was in the fairy tales. It was a nightmare. It must have been two years ago, maybe three, she one day woke up in a desert wasteland and she couldn't remember a thing, not her name, her home, anything. The only person around she could ask was a tall blue haired man who, well she didn't want to think about him or the things he did either. After a while she decided to wander around until she found someone who knew her, and finally a few months ago, she succeeded, although what she found was nothing like she what thought it would be.

Raregroovian men had picked her up by orders of his royal majesty to be brought to him immediately. They had told her something extraordinary; that she was the fiancé of the new king and that she was to be his queen. At first the lady could not believe it. It sounded like something strait out of a fairy tale. It seemed so wonderful to her. She was hoping for a mom and dad that wanted her to come back to their little home, you know something simple and average, to be the bride of a king, that was incredible, at least it was until she had met him.

From the moment she set her eyes on king Lucia, there was something odd about him. He was so cold to her. This was her great prince charming? The one she had loved enough to want to marry? It just didn't feel right, and to make things more awkward it was as if he had no intention of helping her get better. She had been hoping for a kind and caring man who would show just how much he loved her, and tell her everything she wanted to know, her real name, her birthday, her past. Instead what she got was a man who was all business. He told her when they were to be wed she would be called Lady Raregroove from then on. It didn't matter who she was before.

And that was another thing. Lucia had no intention of putting off the wedding; in fact he rushed it without even consulting her. It was as if he just threw her to her handmaidens and said make her look pretty, I have more important things to deal with. Okay maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration but that's what it felt like to her. Didn't he care that she couldn't remember their lives together?

They all told her these feelings were just pre-wedding jitters and that his majesty was normally like this, just go with it. Having no one else to trust, she believed him, and when the big day came she walked down that aisle like she was told, albeit very nervous. The way she was escorted down the aisle, it was as if they were forcing her down. It looked as if every body around were ready to pounce should she try to bolt, and when it came time to say their vows; they skipped over her, as though her answer didn't matter. She was told that's just the way Raregroovian tradition dictated.

They were married, and she was the queen. She thought life would get better from here on out but that odd feeling only increased as days rolled by. Her new husband was hardly ever around. Apparently he had just became king and a war was about to begin so he was much too busy for her, but whenever he was around like when they ate dinner together, he was still just as cold and uncaring. They sat across from one another at a long wooden table. It wasn't very intimate. Later she would wish he were around even less.

He gave her fresh flowers every day and had servants deliver them to her glorious, villa in the west wing. She had tailored made clothing just for her, and only the very best chiefs to make her meals. A hundred servants were on her beck and call. Yes she was certainly living the life of a queen but it just didn't feel right.

After two weeks when she saw her husband for dinner she decided she would demand answers no matter what. She would know her real name, her real life, and most importantly she would tell him that he should start acting like a better husband. She was fed up with his attitude towards her.

That was a mistake. To raise her voice to the king, even if you were the queen was a punishable offence. He made it clear to her that night that as the queen she was above everyone else in this country, except him. She would do whatever he told her and that all the men and women in the castle were to listen to her only if he said they could.

Things only got worse for her from there, which was why she was currently running away for the fifth time since then. She couldn't stand to live there any longer. It was like slowly dyeing inside. She couldn't be queen anymore. She just could not.

AHH! She shrieked as she was tackled to the ground. They had finally caught up with her. She struggled and kicked with everything she had, but these men were each over 6 feet tall and built like tanks. They were on par with trained Navy seals.

"Target secured." The ringleader said as the others began dragging her back to the castle. She almost cried. She knew what was coming. Her nightmare was only to get more horrific tonight.

**Yeah things are taking a dark turn up ahead. I know that you were all waiting for this. A Rave Master fic without Elie? Blasphemy! Sorry it took me four chapters to get her in. Find out Lady Raregroove's fate in the next chapter. **


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own rave master

"NO I WILL NOT GO BACK TO HIM! I DO NOT ACCEPT HIM AS MY KING! LET ME GO! AS YOU'RE QUEEN I DEMAND IT!" Lady Raregoove screamed the whole way home, flailing about in her captor's strong grasp. They held her arms tight enough to nearly cut off circulation as they dragged her up to her chambers.

When they got there, the whip man was already waiting for her. She had tried to run away so many times before in the past that there was no need to consult King Raregroove on her punishment anymore. This was routine now and they all knew he had better things to do than discipline his disobedient wife himself.

Although she was terrified, she refused to cry, not when they roughly yanked her clothes off to nothing but her underwear as to not ruin her designer clothing, Not when they forced her to her knees, not even when the lashes stuck her time and time again. She grit her teeth and refused to give them the satisfaction.

SNAP!

SNAP!

Each lash of the whip cracked across her back with a sound that echoed down the hall. Blood trickled down her back from not only the fresh wounds but also older ones that were ripped back open as the new injuries interrupted the healing process.

After who knows how long, it was probably only a few minutes but to the Lady it felt like hours of stinging pain ripping into her, it finally ceased. The punisher and men holding her still just walked out the door, leaving her on the floor, not even bothering to give the poor girl a passing glance. It was easy to see that this was all just a job to them and nothing more. When the men left, a few women came in to take their place. There were four young ladies carrying things like make up, bandages and fresh clothes, and one elderly one to oversee their work.

Without uttering a single word the four women went to their work. Lucia hired them to clean up the queen after every punishment. Like buffing out the dents in a car, Lucia's property had to be spotless.

"Get off of me!" Lady Raregroove's voice cracked from the strain of trying not to cry as she pushed the maidens away, not wanting anything to do with them. As usual they ignored her orders. Lucia's demands took precedence over her own, although they would have loved nothing more than just leave the girl alone to suffer.

They would never say it out loud because it would be disrespectful to the royal family but they hated queen Raregroove. Who did she think she was? His majesty just picked her up out of the desert and thought she was worthy enough to be his wife and she was so ungrateful to him. Seriously all she had to do was do what he told her. Lucia was the only one in the whole world she had to listen to, she was above everyone else didn't she appreciate that? She was practically queen of the world. What a little brat!

The lady tried to do her best to push the maids away but they just continued with their jobs. One lady roughly grabbed her face and fixed her make up, the other was trying to clean up the torn up backside and wrap her up in bandages, and another was trying to get her into a new dress. All the while the woman wore stoic, uncaring faces as their queen was practically on the verge of hysterics trying to get away from them.

The eldest woman sighed as she watched the scene play out on the sidelines. "Your highness, might you please sit still and behave yourself. This is most improper behavior for a woman of your stature."

"NO! I'LL NEVER STOP FIGHTING YOU! ANY OF YOU!" She yelled through her struggle.

The eldest maid let out another frustrated sigh. She knew what to do in a situation like this. "Your highness you've had quite a day, maybe it would be best to settle down for a nap."

The old woman reached into her bag and pulled out a container filled with little pills. She walked over to her majesty and took out a few capsules for her. "These shall take the sting out of your unfortunate injuries and calm you down. Wouldn't you like that?"

Lady Raregroove knew what those were. This wasn't the first time she had seen those pills and she hated them just the same as she did the lashes. She didn't care that they would take the edge off of the pain she was in. They made her feel woozy. She didn't like it one bit. She scowled at the old woman for her patronizing tone. The old bag treated her like she did know any better. She clamped her mouth shut, not wanting anything to do with those little capsules.

Looks like they would need to do this the hard way. The old woman snapped her fingers and the other women roughly held the queen down and yanked on her jaw. Sure she thrashed in their hold, but they wouldn't give up. Those pills meant they wouldn't have to deal with her for a while. After a minute they had successfully forced her mouth open and three capsules were administered. They then forced her mouth shut and covered it so she would be unable to spit them out. Finally when her highness refused to swallow, one of the ladies began to massage her throat, working the muscles to make the pills go down.

When the work was done, they tossed the young queen onto her bed and they each left the room in a graceful single file line, as if what they had just done was completely normal and not barbaric in any way. The eldest maid was the last to leave. "Have a good rest, my queen." She said sweetly as she shut the door behind as she left, locking her in the room.

"AHHHHH!" The young queen thrashed about on her bed in frustration. She didn't care what it was doing to her whipping injuries; she didn't care how much it stung. She hated all of this and at this point it was all she could do, just scream and flail about on her bed, if only to prove she wouldn't sit quietly for those jerks like they wanted her to do.

However this worked against her as it was only a few minutes later that she was out of breath from her temper tantrum, and feeling very, very tired. She had just wasted a lot of energy making those little pills work even faster. As she panted looking up as the ceiling she could feel them take effect. Her head was swimming, and her vision was getting hazy. Her limbs now felt too lethargic and heavy to move anymore, and all of her senses dulled and grew numb.

She hated these pills so much. It was like they would temporarily turn her mind to mush, leaving her unable to even dream about a better life.

* * *

"We've got to go get her." Haru said, urgency dripping from his voice as he threw down the magazine.

"I beg your pardon?" Musica raised his eyebrow at the statement.

"We've got to go save Elie!" He yelled in return. He then turned around and sifted through a pile of swords, desperately trying to find one that was at least similar to what he was used to.

"Okay calm down." The young blacksmith was determined to get to the bottom of this. One minute this kid was yelling that he was from another time and now he was talking about rescuing someone?

"You saw her in that picture! We have to get her right now! Lucia is doing something horrible to her!"

"You don't know that." Musica stated matter of factly. How would he know if this girl was being hurt? Heck, how did he know this girl to begin with? Even less was known publicly about the new Raregroovian queen than her husband, and that was saying a lot.

"Yes I do!" Haru yelled franticly. He wished he didn't know, but he was certain that poor Elie was in more danger now than ever. She was in Lucia's grasp way too long for her not to be. She shouldn't even be in his grasp to start with! He was supposed to be protecting her! How could this have happened?

"Okay, okay!" Musica replied trying to keep the situation calm as he figured this out. "So you know queen Raregroove?" He started.

"Elie!" Haru barked in correction. He would never call her anything else, least of all that!

"Okay, Elie! So you know Elie, and you want to kidnap her from the Raregroove kingdom?"

"Rescue her!" He corrected again. Offended that it was even suggested that he was a kidnapper.

"Okay, fine, rescue! So how do you propose we do that?"

"We'll think of something on the way there!" Haru grabbed his friend's arm and tried to pull him along. He didn't know where he was going; he just knew he had to go right away.

This was where Musica drew the line. The guy was the one and only prince of this whole nation. He had access to a league of loyal, specially trained soldiers to help him accomplish what he was talking about and yet he wanted to go by himself, with just a young blacksmith he met 10 minutes ago. Let the prince go insane if he wanted, but he wasn't about to be dragged along for the ride.

"Are you nuts!"

"We have to go!" Haru demanded, not wanting to wait a second longer.

"No, you are clearly unwell, and I don't want any part of your delusions! We've never met before today! You don't know anything about that girl in the magazine, and you are the crowned prince of Symphonia, act like one!"

"Fine. You want me to act the role; I'll act the role. Musica, as Haru Glory, royal prince of Symphonia I command that you put down your work and help me with this, or I will have you arrested for treason against the royal family!"

Musica was struck hard by what he had just heard. Well now he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. "You wouldn't!" He tried to call his bluff.

"Try me!" Haru stood firm, his arms crossed as he stared at his friend, daring him to be defiant. He'd do anything to rescue Elie, and although he couldn't really picture doing that to his best friend, he just wouldn't think about that now. He knew Musica well enough to know he'd never turn away from a damsel in distress either.

It was his word against the prince's and Musica was in big trouble. Forget what he had been thinking before. He wanted to go back to work at his crappy 9:00 to 5:00 job for his grandfather. Unfortunately it seemed too late for that now.

"Dammit!"

**Sorry about last chapter being confusing. For some reason the line break didn't show up. I hope it does here.**

**See you next time.**


	6. Chapter 6

I don't own Rave master

"And you're certain it's in here?" the prince asked his cohort as they snuck silently around the outside of the museum. The sun had just set and the museum doors had closed and locked up for the night. They would have to be very quiet if they were to break in.

"I don't know, probably? You should know this better than I do. It's your family that owns and donates to this building on a yearly basis!" Musica recapped the situation in his head. He was being blackmailed by the royal prince of the whole country, who was currently going insane, to break into the Museum of Symphonian history to steal a fifty year old relic to aid them on a solo mission of sneaking past enemy borders to kidnap their queen. He couldn't make this stuff up on his most imaginative day.

"Listen, why do you need to steal this sword? I'm a trained blacksmith! I can make you one!" He insisted. He really didn't want to be doing this.

"Even so, I can't do this without the Rave, and you can't exactly smith me that." The prince answered. "Now you said that after the first war, when Shiba retired, his sword and the Rave were placed in this museum?"

"Yes. Rave is considered to be a national treasure and a big part of this country's history. I got a C in history class and even I know that. They put them here because there was no way to continue using the stones after Shiba retired because there is ONLY ONE RAVE MASTER!" Musica put as much emphasis on that last part as he could without yelling it for the world to hear.

"Until me." Haru corrected. He wasn't making himself sound anymore mentally stable to the blacksmith.

The two of them snuck their way around the side of the building past the security guards. They managed to make it to a locked window. "Okay Musica do your stuff."

"What stuff?" He questioned the prince

"Your silver claiming of coarse! Use it to open the window."

"I don't know Silver Claiming. I never said I did." Musica replied.

"WHAT?"

It would make sense. Musica learned his silver claiming skills from his foster parent and in this time, his family was never destroyed because with Symphonia still standing, his grandfather was able to eventually move him and the family here to continue his services to the country instead of going back home to punk street, so Musica never met Rize and therefore never learned the craft. Too bad Haru never really thought about it like that.

"Well how are we going to get in?"

"Your entire plan was based on me knowing how to silver claim? That's like flippantly shooting a man and thinking everything will be fine because you assume the stranger next to you is a surgeon!" Musica was now on the verge of yelling.

"I'm sorry!" Haru yelled back. "I thought that-"

"FREEZE!"

The bright light of a flashlight momentarily blinded the two boys. Their bickering had caught the attention of a security guard making his rounds. "Hands where I can see them!"

The guard yelled as he escorted the two inside the building to the main office. There they both sat quietly in wooden chairs as they stared across the desk in front of them into the eyes of the museum chief of security. They sat silently, feeling like elementary school students in the principal's office about to get detention.

The museum curator sat in the large chair behind the desk, looking very cross at the two young men. Normally they would just call the police to have them taken away, but seeing as how from the looks of it they were both probably minors, and they hadn't actually been caught inside the museum, just conspiring to break inside, he wanted answers first.

"Well gentlemen, tell me, was this supposed to be a prank, or are the two of you really trying to make a name for yourselves as burglars."

Haru was really not in the mood for this, he was in a hurry. He slumped in his chair and scowled at the man who was delaying him from his mission to save Elie, "Am I in trouble?" He asked dully not really caring for any of this.

Musica practically slapped his forehead at his cohort's statement. Didn't he care what breaking and entering on his record would do to his reputation? He was a public figure, royalty for God's sake! And that was just Haru, no telling what would happen to him. Even if He managed to avoid jail time, his grandfather was going to kill him!

"YES YOU'RE IN TROUBLE!" The Curator got right up in Haru's face and began screaming. He wasn't about to take any lip from this little punk! "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? KID, WHEN I CALL YOUR PARENTS, YOU ARE GONNA BE-"

The door bursting open suddenly cut him off, in popped one of the security guards, looking rather stunned. He went right up to the curator and whispered something into his ear. Whatever it was that was said to him caused the man's face to loose all color. After a moment he got over his shock and looked back to Haru with wide eyes.

"Oh, please forgive me your highness. I-I didn't know it was you." He said in a shaky voice. He didn't know what the crowned prince of Symphonia was doing here and at this time of night, why he was alone with this other young man, or why he was dressed in such a common way, but at the moment he was too scared for his job to care.

Haru was in no mood to deal with this nonsense about being treated like royalty, He was sick of it and their were more pressing issues to deal with at the moment, but maybe for once this could work to his advantage. As prince, this guy would have to listen to him, right? "Look, I've come here for something very important. I need to see the Rave stones and ten powers sword, now. Do not delay me any further, this is a matter of the highest importance."

"Oh, yes sir, your highness. Right this way." He stood up and led the two young men down the quickest corridor to the Rave Stone exhibit. Can I offer you anything else? Some coffee, maybe-"

"Just take us there, now!" Haru snapped.

"Yes sir!" He picked up the pace.

Esinmeter stood tall on a marble pedestal in the center of a large, nicely decorated room surrounded by red velvet ropes that signaled that no museum guest was allowed to get any closer than that. It was old, but the museum kept in the nicest condition possible, as to make certain it would last for as long as it could. The five rave stones, were set up directly below it on a velvet pillow, below that was a plaque that held the description of that artifact's history.

"Yes as you can see we- huh" The museum curator was about to explain the condition of the sword and Rave but Haru couldn't care less. Paying no mind to him, or the ropes that blocked it off he just walked right up to his old sword and pulled it from the pedestal, stunning both men in his presence. Not only did he have no trouble lifting the enormous, heavy object, but also the fact that he did he tried it at all with no thought to whether or not he should, left them speechless.

"Um, Sire, you can't touch that." The curator said in a mousey voice.

"Why not? I thought my family owned this museum or something?" Haru replied, not even bothering to look at him. He just scooped up all the raves and put them in his pockets. It would be a burden to go back to using Shiba's old sword and the uncompleted rave again, he thought, but at the moment, it would have to do.

"Even so, you can't just take-"

SMACK!

Now that he had what he needed, he had to get going, and he wouldn't let this guy slow him down any more. One quick punch to the face and he was out like a light. It was a pity. Haru knew the man was only doing his job, but this was the fastest way possible to get where he needed to be.

"WHAT THE HELL, MAN!" Musica yelled, throwing his hands up in the air at Haru's excessive display of force. He hadn't expected the prince to do that. Just when he was sure he had figured this guy out, he did more crazy things to throw him off guard.

"Musica can you pilot an airship?" Haru asked looking at his cohort.

"YOU JUST PUNCHED THAT GUY OUT!"

"Yeah, I know, now get your ass in gear, we've gotta get going."

It took the two of them about an hour to find a fast enough airship to get to Raregroove. It was small, just big enough for a few people, but very aerodynamic, just perfect for getting them there under the cover of night without anyone knowing.

The only problem was it wasn't their's to take, but Musica knew how to hotwire one of these things, don't ask him where he learned that, and Haru promised he would either return it to the owner or find him and pay him back with his family's money. That is unless of coarse he returned the timeline back to what it was supposed to be, and make none of this ever happen.

"So what's the plan for when we get there?" Musica asked at the helm of the airship.

"I'll figure that out when I get there." Haru replied.

"Sigh. Why am I not surprised that would be your move." They sat in silence for a moment until Musica decided to speak up. Maybe if he approached this from a different angle, he could get the prince to understand. He looked at the younger man. His eyes were set in determination as he stared out the window. He looked so impatient to get there.

It was at least worth a shot, Musica mused. "Listen Haru."

"Huh? You say something?" the prince snapped out of his thoughts.

"You hit your head earlier today right?"

"That's what I was told." He answered. He didn't remember it. He was told he fell off a horse, and he honestly did wake up with a headache this afternoon, but he originally just thought it was one of his injuries from his fight with Lucia in Star memory. Then again, it was the only injury he had. If fact not only were there not a scratch anywhere on his body, but all of his older scars were gone too. His shoulder cut, from the battle with Shuda, the time he fought Lance and took a blade to the side, and all of the brutal markings from the fight with Doryu were all gone and replaced with smooth normal skin.

"Could it be that you just hit your head hard enough to think all those things happened?"

"I'm not crazy!" Haru snapped.

"I think you should at least consider it a possibility! You have no proof that any of this happened and the whole world can tell you that. We are about to pull of what could very likely be a suicide mission, here! You have to be 100% sure of this!"

The prince was silent for a moment. There was clearly something going on in his head. Was he considering it, or just thinking of something to say in rebuttal. After a minute of no reaction, the prince just turned back to looking out the window and replied, "I can't afford doubt, Musica."

The rest of the trip was in total silence.

**I don't really like this chapter. That's why it took so long to come out. Well that and I had finals to study for and moving out to deal with. That is why I'm giving you a double whammy. Turn the next chapter button for the next installment.**


	7. Chapter 7

I updated two, chapters at once. Read the last one before this one. Oh and also I don't own Rave Master.

"It looks as though Syphmphonia is gearing up to fight. We should strike now while they're preparing for war!"

"No, we must raise our defenses first! It will not take them long to prepare. We have been warring on and off with them for several decades now. We would not be able to strike quick enough. It is likely our enemy is already prepared for war. They have the experience."

In a dark room, lit by torches, there was a sinister meeting of Raregroovian generals who bickered back and forth about how to go about this new war. They were all old experience men, ruthlessly trained in the ways of combat and the battle scars that littered their flesh was proof of that. They all argued back and forth across a long wooden table, except for one. The youngest one of the men, by at least thirty years, who sat at the head of the table, His majesty king, Lucia Raregroove. He patiently listened to the men squabble amongst themselves with a stoic, expressionless face.

He was the youngest king in Raregroovian history in the past 250 years, not even 18 yet, and yet he had already chosen a queen, began running the kingdom and planning a war and his reign wasn't even a year long yet. It should have come to no surprise, he had been trained to be a great leader since his birth, but it almost felt like he was an experienced pro.

He had to take over quickly since both the king and queen before him had died so suddenly. They had been poisoned, and without even a trial, Prince Raregroove simply stated it was the royal chief's fault and had him hanged for treason before he could even deny it. He then had his coronation ceremony immediately.

This all took place within 36 hours of King Gale Raregroove's final breath.

This rose quite a bit of suspicion in the kingdom. Why was the prince so eager to become king so quickly after his parent's death, and why was he not more thorough in his search for their killer? They all had their theory but not a soul would utter it out loud, knowing full well what would come of speaking such slander against their new king, and besides King Lucia was a terrifying man, but not even he would do something so awful as to kill his own mother and father for the throne, right?

When the meeting adjourned, King Lucia was practically rubbing his temples. All their idiotic chatter was giving him a migraine. He needed to kill some stress tonight. His lips curved into a wicked smile. He knew just the thing.

As he exited the war room, he called a castle maid over to him.

"Yes Sire?" She asked.

"It has been quite some time since I've seen my bride. I wish to see her for a date this evening. Tell the other maids to prepare her, I want her looking ravishing, then send her to our matrimonial chambers." He commanded.

"Oh but sire. She was just put down for a nap only 30 minutes ago." The maid replied.

The king's smile deepened. "That will make it all the easier for me."

* * *

Several escorts came to Lady Raregroove's bedchambers, finding her unconscious and sprawled out on the bed. The men tried their best to wake her. They propped her up into a sitting position, lightly slapped her face, tried talking to her, shaking her, the best reaction they could get out of her majesty was her dull eyes opening half way and a few incoherent murmurs before the lady's eyes rolled back into her skull and her body fell back onto the bed, limp as noodles. It would still be quite some time before her medicine wore off.

"Come on Lady, work with us." One of the men urged. He noticed a few red blotches showing threw her bandages and staining the dress she was wearing.

"We should call some of her handmaidens to change her bandages."

"We'll call them when we get her to his majesty's chambers. They'll fix her clothes too, doll her up for her date and all that. Come on, let's just get her there."

Two men grabbed each of the young queen's arms and proceeded to drag her on her feet her to her destination, with the rest of the escort following closely behind. She could do nothing about it. At this moment in time, her brain was practically Jelly.

It would be quite a trek to the matrimonial chambers. For a newly wed couple, their privet quarters were certainly far apart. They had to drag her majesty all the way to the other side of the castle. They were on the first floor near the main entrance when suddenly-

"ELIE!"

The 14 escorts were rather surprised by the sight of the young silver haired man coming seemingly strait out of nowhere, bursting onto the scene and rushing at their queen. He grabbed the young woman right out of their hands and proceeded to shake her to wake her up a little. She only stared at him with half lidded eyes as her head bobbed around from being shaken so much.

"ELIE, SPEAK TO ME! WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU?" Poor Haru was frantic; he panicked at the sight of her being dragged along with a bloodied backside. It terrified him so much when he saw her in this condition that he had completely forgotten the plan that he and Musica had worked so hard on. They were supposed to be sneaky and not draw any attention to themselves when they entered Raregroovian Palace grounds, but one glance at his girl in a position like this, caused Haru to completely loose it. If he looked behind him, he would see Musica smacking his forehead at the prince's massive blunder.

Yup, they were dead now, the young blacksmith thought.

When the escorts got over their initial shock they angrily focused on this mysterious boy and drew their swords. One spoke up for the rest of them. "I don't know who you are or how you got in here, but how dare you lay a finger on our nation's queen. Prepare to-"

He was cut off by Haru's fist connecting to his face and sending him flying. Haru was absolutely livid. He turned away from Elie, letting her frail figure fall to her knees, to face these strong, Raregroovian men.

"Who was it?" He seethed. "Who did this to her?" He charged at the men. He was out numbered. One of the escorts was on the ground, out cold with a broken jaw, but it was still 13 to 2. Those were not good odds.

For the giant Raregroovian body guards that is.

Before Musica could make a move, Haru was as quick as lightning, taking out another 5 more bodyguards, within 20 seconds. His rage got his adrenaline pumping. They tried to fight back, but there was nothing they could do against the Symphonian prince. He was going to make all men associated at the scene of the crime pay. Just as he was about to plow his fist into another man's skull he suddenly heard the weak whisper of the very girl he was trying to rescue.

She was on the floor where he had left her, just barley keeping herself up right. Her frame shook like a leaf from the effort it took for her to move. She tried to get up and get away, but it was too much for her. There was a tiny sliver of coherent thought in her head that screamed at her to go now. Her bodyguards were taking her to HIM, and there was another stranger here acting violent and crazy. Whoever he was when he was finished with her escorts he may even turn on her. This was her chance to get away but she was much too out of it to move. It was a miracle that she could even think this much about anything.

"…I can't stand up…" She barely managed to squeak out. Her voice was so weak.

The sound of her tiny, frail voice was all it took to snap Haru out of his blind rage. Within a matter of seconds his face contorted from rage, to shock, concern, and finally set on determined understanding of what it was he had to do. He dropped the man whose neck he was holding onto the floor and walked over to the girl.

He knelt down to her level, grabbed her two limp arms and wrapped them around his shoulders so she was hugging him. Then he proceeded to lift up the rest of her body, so her entire form was in his arms. Knowing that he had her tight and secure, he walked with purpose towards the exit with his head held high. The expression on his face was filled with stoic determination. God help anyone who looked at him wrong. He gave off the air of a proud leader marching on to wherever he pleased.

The final few men left standing went strait for him. "Hey you can't just-"

They stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of the Symphonian prince's deadly stare. If looks could kill, they would have all fallen over dead by now. The look in his eyes read, "Just try and mess with me. I dare you."

Before the Raregroovian men could wet their pants in the presence of such a frightening looking young man, Musica proceeded to knock the last of them out cold with a few smacks to the head as well. Now no one was stopping them from leaving, and there were no witnessed left to alert anyone else either.

"All right. Lets go." The blacksmith said as he followed after the royal prince.

The sleepy queen did her best to keep her eyes open. Now this stranger had her in his arms, where was he taking her, what did he want with her? But for some odd reason she couldn't bring herself to even try anymore, she felt almost peaceful with this strange young man looking after her. Her head rolled onto Haru's shoulder and she relaxed into his embrace. A soft sigh escaped her lips. Not changing his expression at all, Haru whispered in her ear only loud enough for her to hear it.

"It's going to be okay now Elie. You're safe. I'm here with you now."

With that they left the Palace grounds with no further trouble. There were a few witnesses to their departure but with one glance at Haru all were too scared to attempt to stop them. He was so intimidating that they completely had forgotten what king Lucia would do when he realized that his woman would not be joining him that night. That was a bad move on their part.


	8. Chapter 8

I do not own Rave master.

Musica was at the helm of the small airship trying to fly back to Symphonia as fast as he could. The sun was rising and he understood that it would only be a matter of time before Raregroove caught up with them. Now they had a real reason to war with Symphonia. God only knew how they were going to bring down the hammer on their nation for taking their queen. The quicker they got back to the safety of the borders of their homeland where an army could protect them, the better. Then hopefully they'd be home free. But if one good thing came out of this it would be that he might just get a medal for this. He helped the prince in a two man-kidnapping mission within a single night. He still couldn't believe it. There was no way his grandpa could accuse him of being unpatriotic now.

The young blacksmith peeked into the rearview mirror at the passengers in the backseat. Well maybe more than one good thing came from this. He couldn't stand to see a young woman in such a position, enemy or not. It felt good to help a damsel in distress.

In the backseat Haru sat with the sleeping queen's head resting on his lap. Her back was exposed as the young man went to work on applying antiseptic on her wounds. It made him sick to see how horribly her back was torn up. She had even more scars littering her flesh than he once did. This was awful. He was supposed to have protected her from things like this. How could this have happened? Why did this have to happen to her? She didn't do anything wrong to deserve this.

It took all of his restraint to not just have Musica turn the ship around so he could find everyone responsible and break their bones. He almost punched through a wall of the ship, he was so livid, but what kept him calm for the most part was the fact that she needed him. That going back would put her in jeopardy and the most important thing right now was to make certain she was safe and her injuries were treated. So with sad angry and tired eyes, he just continued to help heal her wounds, just like she would help him after he would get out of a tough fight so many times before.

A soft moan shook Haru out of his thoughts she was waking up. For a moment as the drugs began to ware off she was disoriented and confused. She looked around her at the unfamiliar territory, waiting for everything to come back to her. She tried to sit up, but Haru gently pushed her back down. He wasn't quite finished treating her lash wounds.

"Elie go back to sleep. You've been hurt pretty bad."

"What?" She said in a groggy tone of voice as she rubbed her tired eyes. It was a voice she didn't recognize. Now that she was getting a good look at her surroundings, she realized she had never been here before. This wasn't where she had fallen asleep. This wasn't any part of the castle. She shook her head to clear away the cobwebs and moved away from the prince. Panic was beginning to bubble. What was going on? Was she on a plain? What for? Where were they taking her? Who were these young men?

"Hey! Careful!" Haru gently grabbed her arm and motioned her to sit back down so he could finish. She was clearly disoriented. She could get even more hurt like this.

"GET AWAY!" She roughly yanked herself away from him and took a shaky step back. She looked into the eyes of this strange young man. She had no idea who he was but he had quite the concerned look in his eyes. It was very different than the eyes of the other helpers she was used to. They were all business. Even when they helped treat her wounds after a punishment they didn't really care if she was in pain, just that they could make her cooperative. but Just because this stranger acted nice didn't mean she was going to trust him.

"What do you want?" She stood up as tall as she could and tried to sound like the queen of a mighty empire should, but fear was evident in her shaky voice.

"I just want to help you. Your back is messed up pretty bad, let me take a look."

"It's fine! Don't touch me!" She defended, backing up as far as she could against the side of airship wall. No matter what the situation she would forever be defiant.

Haru raised an eyebrow at Elie's strange behavior. He had never seen her like this. She looked borderline pitiful, shaking like a leaf, hiding her wounds from him of all people. His heart sank a little at the distrusting look in her eyes. How could she think HIM of all people would want to harm her? "I'm not gonna hurt you, Elie. You're safe now. There's no need to be afraid, it's me."

"Elie?" She inquired. She remembered that name. It was the name that she found written on her arm on the very first day she woke up with no memories. For the longest time she thought that it was her name, but her husband had assured her it wasn't. How did this boy know it?

"Why would you call me that? My name is Lady Raregroove, queen of the Raregroove Empire. I should be addressed as such!" She tried to act tough.

Listening to Elie be referred to as 'Lady Raregroove' made Haru internally cringe. He could not stand the idea of Elie having anything to do with that name. "Don't say that! You're Elie! I'll never call you anything else! It's me, Haru. You have to remember!"

"D-do you know me?" Her eyes widened slightly. It had been so long since she had forgotten everything, and her husband offered no help when it came to remembering, but this boy acted like he knew her so well. Could he know the truth about her past? Could he be somebody that she once knew? Who she was? "Have we met before? I beg of you please tell me! I've lost all of my memories up until a couple years ago. I don't remember anything of my life before then and no one will try to help me! Please!"

The two shared a moment of silence. The only sound was the soft hum of the ship's engine. For Elie, she dare not speak because she waited for an answer. Did this boy, Haru know her from her mysterious past?

For Haru he was quiet simply because he just felt too heartbroken to say anything. She truly had forgotten him. Everything they did together. He should have expected it of course. Nobody remembered what it was he remembered but for Elie it was different. He had promised her specifically he would never let her forget about her friends, that she would never have to suffer through the loneliness that her amnesia gave her ever again, and if she did than he- Wait a minute that's it. There was another part of that promise, what he should do incase she ever did forget again.

He turned to his other friend who sat at the helm of the ship. "Musica we're changing coarse!"

The Blacksmith practically balked at that idea. He had to be joking! To head to any other place in the world other than Symphonia right now would be suicide. They could not risk Raregroove catching up to them.

"We are heading to Hip Hop town the most southern town on Song Continent." Haru declared.

"Are you out of your mind? More than usual I mean? What is in Hip Hop town that we have to risk our lives to get there?"

"A smirk appeared on Haru's face. "A Dog racing track!"

"No!" Musica replied. It was clear that this kid was too insane to try and reason with. He was just going to leave it at that. All of what he needed to say could be summed up in a single word. "NO!"

"We have to! I have a promise to keep!"

"What is at this dog track?" The young queen chimed in.

Haru gave her a heartwarming smile. "That's where you and I first met!"

"So we have met before." She whispered in astonishment. For the first time in much too long she had a lead on her identity. An actual lead! She had nearly given up on finding her past when her new life had made her became too worried for her future.

"Yes. Elie, please remember. You and I were best friends! We went on so many adventures together, helping people! You said you wanted to move in with me on my home on Garage Island! I made the promise that if you ever forgot anything then I would take you back to all the places we went together starting at the very first place we met in Hip hop town!" He exclaimed.

Musica rolled his eyes. "Nut job." He whispered, but Haru had heard it. He glared at his friend. "Fine! Be that way! Take us to Symphonia and sit at home safe and sound like a baby! The second we land, you can get off and we'll just go to Hip hop town on our own!"

Musica scowled. There was no way he could let the two of them do that. Between his insanity and her injuries, they would stand no chance of protecting themselves. Raregroove would not rest until they found them and they would be as good as dead outside of the Symphonia boarder. Not to mention he just hated to be called a coward by anyone, even if the guy was clearly off his nut and didn't know what he was talking about.

"Please, good sir." Elie but in. She pleaded with him. "You don't know how long I've waited for an opportunity like this. I have to know who I am. I'm so sick of having the truth be kept from me. What if I never get another Chance? I want to go as soon as possible."

The girl's plea was what it was that broke the dam. He couldn't resist a girl's sad face. "Fine!" He yelled exasperated with the two, and the ship instantly got a little brighter with the happy spirits of it's passengers. "I'll take you kids there and act as your chaperone for a little longer but lady you'd better sit down and take it easy until you recover and let the kid finish treating your injuries!"

"YAY! Ow!" It suddenly hit her just how much her back hurt her. She lay back down on her stomach across the backseat of the airship while Haru kneeled down on the floor beside to her and continued to dress her wounds just as he did earlier before she had awakened.

There was a part of her that told Elie to be cautious around these two. Past experiences lead her to believe that she should not trust the word of others so easily, but she pussed that part deep down inside her and opted to ignore it. For the first time in the longest time she felt giddy. This was the closest she had ever been in a long time to finally knowing the truth about her past and she was in the presence of someone who actually wanted her to know too. She just couldn't keep the smile off of her face.

"Hey Haru?" She asked getting his attention.

"What's up?" He returned her grin.

"Will you tell me everything?"

"We met on my first day on the main land. I had never been away from my home before but by this time you had a whole year of exploring the entire western part of Song continent."

She listened carefully as he proceeded to tell her everything that he could of their adventures together.


	9. Chapter 9

I don't own rave master

It was about 3:00 in the afternoon when they had arrived in Hip-hop town. Haru and Elie had taken a nap on the long ride over but poor Musica hadn't slept a wink so it made sense to the two of them when he had fallen asleep not long after he parked the airship. It was a long and stressful night for him so they made the decision to just crack the window, leave a note for him, and let him sleep in the ship for a while, in spite of what he had told them earlier, Haru was pretty confident that he could protect Elie on his own, no chaperoning was required. He had his sword and rave after all.

They wanted to go strait to the dog track. Elie was so giddy that she couldn't keep the smile off of her face and of course the feeling spread to Haru as well. This was going to be so much fun. The first time he was here he couldn't exactly enjoy it, what with Demon card having this city in it's grip and all, but this time he was going to take all the time they needed. Which was why they sort of got side tracked on their way to the race track.

The first thing they did after sneaking off from Musica was grab a bite to eat since they had missed breakfast. Haru ate so much he felt like he could burst. They wanted to go the track after that, but after noticing how many stares Elie got wearing her designer dress, and how hot Elie felt walking around in it on such a lovely day, they opted into going shopping instead.

There was an enormous Heart Kruez department store close by and the next thing they knew over an hour and a half went by of Elie going through different outfits. So many miniskirts, boots, tank tops, her majesty had forgotten how comfortable these casual clothes could be. She loved the way she looked so much, she didn't even care that she was showing off a little more skin than usual. Haru normally didn't care for clothes shopping but Elie just looked so happy and care free running around that shop like a kid in a candy store, you wouldn't find him complaining. Elie even modeled some of her new outfits for him.

It was almost 5:30. They had to head out to the Dog track by now, but on their way Elie once again became distracted by the big flashy sign that read casino over a big building and another two hours floated by time she had collected a full 20 grand.

"Geez Elie. It's about time. Are you finished?" Haru asked raising an eyebrow.

"Hey do you want me to pay you back for all those clothes you bought me?" She retorted.

"What I want is to get to where we are going before it closes. Don't you?"

"Well yeah." Elie responded "But I never get a holiday like this back in Raregroove. There are most rooms in my home I'm not allowed to enter, let alone an entire town to explore. I guess I just got excited."

Haru's expression couldn't help but soften at that statement. He couldn't imagine just how hard it must have been for her, and they did have plenty of time after all. "Okay. I got ya. You know it's getting a little close to dinnertime. Why don't we use what you just won to get into a buffet?"

Upon seeing her smile light up her face once more, Haru was sure it wouldn't hurt putting off the dog track for just one more hour. He wondered to himself if this was what a date was supposed to be like? He had often thought about what it would be like to have a girlfriend and he was hoping to finally settle down and experience it after the war with Lucia but then this crazy thing happened.

By the time they had finished with dinner, their bellies may have been full, but the sun was about to set. They raced over to the track as fast as they could but by the time they had gotten there it was already closed for the day.

"Guess we didn't have as much time as we thought." Elie spoke aloud.

But Haru was much too determined to just give up now. "He had already broken more international laws than he could this weekend. What was one more? "We'll sneak in." Haru declared.

"Won't we get in trouble?"

Haru grinned at her. "Can't be any worse than the trouble we've already caused."

Elie giggled at that true statement. "Okay then.

They slipped past the security guards, hopped over the fence and came upon the top of a large row of bleachers that Haru recognized so well from his memories. So much had changed to him since this whole confusing ordeal of being trapped in what was possibly a different time, dimension, delusion, or something else entirely that he had yet to figure out. They stared down at the empty arena overlooking a racetrack that only a few hours earlier held a crowd of screaming gamblers cheering for their favorite mutt to win them money.

The prince turned to the girl next to him with hope in his eyes. "Do you remember this place."

Elie wished she had a different answer for him. She wanted to remember but there was not a shred of familiarity in this entire Arena. In fact there wasn't a speck of nostalgia that was brought on by any part of this town. She prayed that something would hit her when she arrived in this arena but now that she stood here and took a good long look at it all, she felt no different. Not the least bit.

She didn't have to say it. Haru could already tell by the look in her eyes.

"It's okay. There are other places to see. In the mean time why don't we just sit and enjoy the view. Sunset looks awfully pretty. Maybe if we give it a minute something will come back. Let's not rule this place out just yet." He encouraged as they took a seat in the stadium benches."

"You know where I'd like to see next? That place you were telling me about, Garage Island. Can we go there next?" Suggested Elie.

"But you haven't ever been there before. We were just planning on living there in the future." Haru replied.

"But you've been there. Tell me about it again? It sounds beautiful."

Haru allowed a nostalgic smile appear on his face. He was happy to talk about his favorite place in the world. "It's very small, but in a good sort of way. Nobody is a stranger. You can trust and become friends with everyone there really easily. And even though it's small, it feels big. Probably because of all the open space. You never fell crowded and everywhere you turn you can see the infinite blue sky, or the ocean that just seems to go on for all eternity. And at night, when the stars come out, you can just look up and it feels like you're staring into forever. We may be cut off from the main land but there's nothing keeping you closed in or cut off from what looks like the universe in front of you."

The young queen closed her eyes and tried to picture it in her head. It all just sounded so wonderful, just the idea that there was nothing and nobody keeping her locked up was like a paradise in her mind. "I can't wait to see it. You promise that's the kind of place where we'll live every day?"

"The thing you've gotta know about me Elie is that I never break a promise. Even to someone who doesn't remember it. I promise we'll get there someday."

Haru glanced down at her blissful face that seemed so lost in her own world and he just couldn't help but try to get closer to her. He did something that he wanted to do for too long. Slowly he wrapped his arm around her and tried to bring her in so that her little frame was leaning on him. He rested his cheek atop her head and took in the sweet smell of her soft hair. Then, feeling bold, he moved that same hand wrapped her shoulder and reached up to push her bangs back so that he could place an affectionate, innocent kiss on her forehead.

Out of nowhere Elie gasped and violently pushed him away from her. "DON'T!" She screeched as she stood up to put some distance between them.

Haru stared at her with shocked wide eyes. She practically jumped out of her skin with one little peck on the forehead, and now she was staring down upon him trying to catch her breath from such a horrible fright. He thought back to the airship ride when she had also treated him like he was a monster ready to attack just because they were in close proximity. He had never known her to act this way and he had a feeling that it was more than just her lost memories. She seemed to have accepted that they were close enough to be able to live together.

Then he remembered something else. He did recall her acting like this once before from a kiss and that's when a terrible dreadful idea occurred to him. She had lived with Lucia for months.

"Elie…" He looked at her with pleading eyes. "Will you talk to me? I want to know why… Why do you look so scared?" He asked simply not wanting to come right out and ask her what he was really thinking.

"I.." She averted her eyes away from him and in a flustered manor and looked around for just about anything else to concentrate on. She didn't want to think about this right now. She was having such a wonderful day, she didn't want to ruin it by dragging THAT into it. "I just don't like people getting too close to me or anything. I don't know if I did before, but I don't now okay?"

She wrapped her arms around herself as if to give her own body a comforting hug. Unable to take his eyes off of her Haru decided to just dive in head first into his questions. He didn't want to know, but he needed to, so he would just get it out quickly like ripping off a band-aid. "Is that because HE got too close?"

She opened her mouth for a minute and closed it, not wanting to say it out loud. She fidgeted on her feet and refused to look anywhere but at Haru as she rubbed her arms.

Haru stood up and slowly reached out to her to give her a hug, but she stopped him. "Don't…." A moment of silence past between them. "That's where HE touched me…. Everywhere is where he touched me…." She tried to stop herself from crying but to no avail.

Haru opened his mouth but closed it quickly; he needed a second to think of what to say. He had never felt so enraged, sad and helpless at the same time. He was so livid with Lucia for this crime. He was infuriated with himself for not being able to prevent it when he had sworn so many times before he would never lay a finger on her again. He wanted to scream, and punch him senseless, but he wouldn't dare raise his voice in front of Elie. Not when she was on the verge of tears and Lucia wasn't even here at the moment.

"He's not ever going to touch you again. He's gone now, it's over."

In a cracked voice Elie corrected him "He's still here…"

Haru's Heart skipped a beat at that bone chilling statement.

She explained. "He never left me. He's imprinted on me. I can still feel him on me sometimes. He's in my nightmares, I see him every time I think I see something at the corner of my eye. I hear him every time I hear any little sound. He's inside me, affecting every thing…"

After finally admitting it she had just broke down, unable to stop herself from crying. For the next twenty minutes, she depicted all the little atrocious details of Lucia's crime, how she tried to get away, how he grabbed her by the ankles and bruised her flesh, how she tried for hours on end to get his stench off to no avail. She couldn't stop herself. It was like a dam had broken and she just had to let it all out. Near the end of her confession she was in complete hysterics, yelling, clutching on to the sides of her head with tears drenching her cheeks.

Haru just listened intently, not saying a word to interrupt her. He had nothing to say. For the first time in his life he knew that telling a person that things would work out was just not enough. There was nothing he could say to change this, and it broke his heart. After a while of listening he found it hard for him to keep his tears in as well.

By the time Elie was finished, she was out of breath. Haru, with nothing to say just guessed at what the right thing to do was. This was new territory to him. He took his jacket off and very slowly held it up for her. "I'm not going to hurt you…." He whispered. She had to understand that first before he tried anything else. He supposed that she did understand, because she made no motion to stop him when he slowly took his jacket and draped it over her shivering shoulders.

Elie didn't protest to this, in fact oddly enough she felt a little better. Well 'better' was a drop in the bucket but she would admit that it felt good to get all of that off her chest and speak to someone who actually acted like he cared. Her breathing calmed down and her tears eventually stopped. Feeling exhausted. She leaned into him slightly.

Haru looked down at her with sad, tired, wet eyes


	10. Chapter 10

I don't own rave master.

When Musica awakened he couldn't help but be annoyed. Not only did he fall asleep for hours in a cramped airship, he had found that Haru and Elie had ditched him, and it was already close to sunset. He had been passed out for too long for his liking. Who knows how far they had wandered off at this point.

"Dumb ass royals…" He muttered to himself. He would be so happy when they were finally home and those two could be someone else's responsibility. Didn't they know how reckless they were being? Or didn't they care? They were on the run from a nation with a sick-minded king. How could they be off on their own goofing off in a situation like this?

The young blacksmith opened the door to let himself out to go looking for them but he had opened the door a little too wide and he ended up hitting the ship parked beside theirs and denting it.

"Yikes." Well maybe they won't notice it. Maybe the ship belonged to understanding people, but unfortunately for him, Luck was not on his side. When he took a closer inspection of what type of vehicle it was; a thousand alarms went off in his brain. The style, the plates, it was very obvious that this was made in Raregroove, and the only people on earth to drive a hunk of junk made there would be the proud people of the Raregroovian nation who thought themselves too good to drive anything else.

The blacksmith cursed aloud. The need to find those two was even greater now. Raregoove had caught up.

* * *

Elie and Haru and sat there in silence for quite a long time. The sun had already gone down a while ago but neither of them paid much notice. Elie had calmed down enough and leaned into her friend's shoulder. He was actually more comforting than she thought he could be. For some reason she felt safe and comfortable with him so close. His arm was wrapped around her shoulder and she actually felt okay with it.

Haru felt Elie shiver slightly. It was starting to get cold now that the sun wasn't out anymore, so he gently rubbed his hand up and down the side of her arm. Maybe now was a good time to go back to the ship? It felt like they both had a long day and it seemed as though Elie wasn't going to remember anything about this place. Maybe at the next place they would have more luck.

He looked at her. "Elie would you like to-"

"Go home?" A chilling voice finished that sentence for him. A voice that sent ice running through them, Elie in particular tensed up with terror at its maliciously familiar tone. She was sure he would send someone after her, but she never would have guessed that he would come to get her himself

Out of the shadows came none other than his majesty, king Lucia Raregroove, followed by a large squadron of his finest men backing him up, he glared smugly at Haru and Elie like a cat would at a couple of cornered mice as the surrounded the two.

Elie's shaky hand reached for Haru's and held onto it for dear life. She was absolutely terrified and on the verge of panicking. In return he squeezed it just as tightly. As if she would slip away from him if he wasn't holding on, and he would be damned if anything took her away.

Haru's deadly stare shot Daggers at the king who stood before him; he shook with fury, knowing what he did, and now he had the nerve to actually think he could get her back? The smug look in that monster's eyes only heightened his wrath. Haru didn't know if the sins against the one he loved so much could ever be forgiven, but at the moment he wasn't thinking about that. The only thing on his mind was how to keep Elie close by and away from that bastard while completely destroying him at the same time.

In a husky voice King Raregroove spoke to his wife. "It is time to go home, my pet. Come now, and I will give you my word your punishment will not be too severe."

"No." Elie replied right away without even thinking about it. She didn't need to. She had already made up her mind. She didn't care what she was risking or what the consequences were, she would never be used that way again. With Haru right beside her, her confidence grew. She looked her wicked husband in the eyes and told her tormentor, "I will never go back to that life again! I'm a free woman now; neither you nor anybody else will use me like that ever again. I'm finally on the road to where I belong!"

Lucia's smirk deepened at he pitiful wife's empty little declaration. He would enjoy bursting her bubble. "That road is leading you down the same path. Whether it be me or him, you will always be a royal plaything."

"What are you talking about?" She asked confused but still on guard.

"Did your precious Haru not tell you? Or do you want to refer to him by his real name, Prince Haru of Symphonia? He's our rival nation's prince. The 'Island home' he was telling you about doesn't actually exist. He was going to take you back to a castle just like the one you've been living in all this time, lock you away, and continue right where I left off with you."

"That's a lie!" Haru screamed, completely offended by the accusation. "I would never hurt Elie like that! Don't compare my feelings to your sick lust!"

"But it's true isn't it?" Lucia continued. "You are your nations prince. If you love her so much why don't you tell the sweet girl the truth? Are you or aren't you a part of the royal family of the Symphonia kingdom?"

At first Elie waited for him to deny the ridiculous claim, but as the seconds ticked away and the only response she got was a look in his eyes that was thinking about how to word it aloud something inside of her began to sick. A giant pit began to form in her stomach as the truth of the matter sunk in. This was the worst possible occurrence. No matter where she went she would be tormented and taken advantaged of, and this time the fear was followed by a horrible heartbreak. She had actually believed him, actually allowed herself to have faith that she could trust a total stranger and fall for his sweet nothings.

He fumbled awkwardly over his words as he tried to explain. "Well, yes I am the prince, but my real home is-" Haru didn't finish his sentence. He became startled when he felt Elie roughly yank her hand away from him. He turned to look her in the eye and saw the most heartbroken, terrified tears wetting her face.

"No…" She whispered.

Lucia continued to rub salt in her wounds. He found her panic and sorrow so deliciously amusing. "Another royal has taken you in for his personal gain? How is it you fell for this TWICE? This whole time he was just luring you away from me with sweet false promises so that he could use you as a pawn to get back at our great Raregroovian nation."

"What? That's not true!" Haru tried to take control of the situation. He took a step closer and reached out for his love once more. "Elie I-"

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" She cried out hysterically as she backed away from him.

He couldn't let her think such an awful thing. "No! Elie I swear I-"

Before he could say another word or take another step closer he suddenly found himself surrounded by Lucia's men, cutting him off from the poor girl. He couldn't see her behind Lucia's tall, muscular lackeys but he could certainly hear her sobs of anguish.

Haru growled in frustration from his current situation. He pulled out his sword. He wasn't about to let these goons get in his way. Lucia stood in the background smirking at the Symphonian prince's predicament. Things were going exactly as he wanted; all he needed to do was make his move when the time was perfect.

"I'll show you, you stupid thugs!" Haru charged up his sword in hopes that a few explosions werer enough to take out these losers, He reached for the magic inside of Rave just as he always had done before, only this time he got no reaction. It hit him like being shoved into a cold pool without warning. This had never happened before. It was as if Rave was completely ignoring him, as if he weren't the Rave master at all, but rather just a normal person.

"Ha ha ha! Are you having trouble, Rave master?" Lucia mocked. Haru's eyes widened as a panic rushed though his veins and cold beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. This couldn't be happening! This had never happened to him before! All of a sudden his mind flashed back to his latest conversations with his mother, his sister, Musica, and the only explanation for this cruelly hit him hard right in the face.

Could it be that he really just imagined being the Rave master? Was he actually, truly…. Crazy?

Before the answer came to him, Lucia's men took advantage of his confused state and attacked. He didn't know what hit him, only that the last thing he heard before everything faded to black was Elie's scream and Lucia's insane, maniacal laughter.

**Sorry for the extremely late update everyone. I've never gone a whole month without updating before. I'm so ashamed, but I hope this chapter will help you forgive me.**


	11. Chapter 11

Okay everybody. Bad news. I'm not going to continue this story. School is going to be starting again soon and I've been barely able to make time for this as it is with all that's going on in my life, and to be honest I feel like I've written myself into a corner.

I explained at the beginning that I didn't really know how this was going to end. unlike my other stories, where I may not have had them planned out perfectly but I at least knew where they were going. I really want to apologize for that, but if I force creativity than I just might give this story and ending that will be rushed and seem half hearted and I don't think I could come up with anything good before school begins in less than a month anyway.

I really don't want to leave you hanging and I know I personally always think 'what a waste', when writers just drop off without warning, so I've decided to take some advice from another fanfiction writer I know about what to do in times like these.

I'm putting this story up for adoption. Anybody who wants to can continue it, make a sequel to it, or just take the idea and rewrite it entirely. I actually would think it would be really cool to see other people's take on this premise. Maybe someone out there will have better luck than I do in coming up with a good ending, maybe someone who can write better.

Once again I would like to apologize for this. I wish all the writers out there better luck with your own story ideas and creative works than what I had with this one.


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